Fiction --- As known to mango people, it is a story or an imaginative narration. The reason as to why a normal person would like to spend a few moments of his life devouring fiction is to escape the grims of the everyday reality. Divorce problems, marital blues, governance issues, office problems etc etc are the themes that decorate most of the non- sleeping moments of an individual. And since, in reality he has no option but to acquiescence this, he turns to fiction.
In the world of fiction, he dons himself as one of the troubled and victimized poor soul who rises from the ashes and redeems himself. Okay ! Maybe I overstated it. But the fact, is that fiction is supposed to be a redeemer from the banalities of life, and isn't supposed to thrust you more in its murkier part.
Unfortunately 31 by Upendra Namburi does just that. The entire story (if it can be called so) is set out across the 31 days of March, and covers the ups and downs in the life of the protagonist -- Ravi Shastry, a senior sales manager of the fictional Imperial bank.
The premise of the story is that Ravi Shastry is a regional marketing head in Indian-Bangalore office of Imperial Bank and despite his team having showed a stellar performance, they are in the probable firing list as the bank undergoes the trauma of downsizing due to some poor show in the Brazil office. Co-incidently, even his wife undergoes a corporate trauma at the same time. To add some stupid spice to the story, they suddenly realize that they are expecting a baby. So how Ravi handles (or screws up actually) all these blues along with the hawks who are eyeing every possible pie in the shakeup makes up the story.
At the start, the biographical narration starts off on a promising note, as different relations are revealed through a series of conversations. But as you continue turning the pages, all you see are only conversations followed by more inane conversations. There is no description at all. For someone used to the good- old story narrative, it becomes quite a drab to carry on.
As you continue your journey trying to keep up with the increasingly insane conversations spoken between an uncountable number of characters penned by the writer, (and this does not include the tweets spread throughout the book), you grow tiresome with each passing page. At many a points I came close to keeping away the book, but trudged along to simply complete it.
The lowest part of the book comes with its description of the protagonist. Ravi cannot seem to have a handle on any of his drives in his life. Being a manager, there should have been some semblance of managerial ability with him. But the author paints him off more as a street goon who kind of likes losing control of everything in his moment of crisis. All that you hear through the 350 + page narrative are cries of groan, ass- licking and stupid survival techniques that will make you cringe about the banking industry.
I am not saying that banking industry is all good, or for that matter even the corporate life is. Anyone who will even have a second glance at this book, will have some idea of what the corporate life is about. My only request to Ravi and his tribe is that, you don't need to force the same thing down their throats again. Usage of corporate slangs does not in any way make you a good writer and your book a good thriller ......
To wrap up ---- Please do not go for this book. Sheer waste of time.
In the world of fiction, he dons himself as one of the troubled and victimized poor soul who rises from the ashes and redeems himself. Okay ! Maybe I overstated it. But the fact, is that fiction is supposed to be a redeemer from the banalities of life, and isn't supposed to thrust you more in its murkier part.
Unfortunately 31 by Upendra Namburi does just that. The entire story (if it can be called so) is set out across the 31 days of March, and covers the ups and downs in the life of the protagonist -- Ravi Shastry, a senior sales manager of the fictional Imperial bank.
The premise of the story is that Ravi Shastry is a regional marketing head in Indian-Bangalore office of Imperial Bank and despite his team having showed a stellar performance, they are in the probable firing list as the bank undergoes the trauma of downsizing due to some poor show in the Brazil office. Co-incidently, even his wife undergoes a corporate trauma at the same time. To add some stupid spice to the story, they suddenly realize that they are expecting a baby. So how Ravi handles (or screws up actually) all these blues along with the hawks who are eyeing every possible pie in the shakeup makes up the story.
At the start, the biographical narration starts off on a promising note, as different relations are revealed through a series of conversations. But as you continue turning the pages, all you see are only conversations followed by more inane conversations. There is no description at all. For someone used to the good- old story narrative, it becomes quite a drab to carry on.
As you continue your journey trying to keep up with the increasingly insane conversations spoken between an uncountable number of characters penned by the writer, (and this does not include the tweets spread throughout the book), you grow tiresome with each passing page. At many a points I came close to keeping away the book, but trudged along to simply complete it.
The lowest part of the book comes with its description of the protagonist. Ravi cannot seem to have a handle on any of his drives in his life. Being a manager, there should have been some semblance of managerial ability with him. But the author paints him off more as a street goon who kind of likes losing control of everything in his moment of crisis. All that you hear through the 350 + page narrative are cries of groan, ass- licking and stupid survival techniques that will make you cringe about the banking industry.
I am not saying that banking industry is all good, or for that matter even the corporate life is. Anyone who will even have a second glance at this book, will have some idea of what the corporate life is about. My only request to Ravi and his tribe is that, you don't need to force the same thing down their throats again. Usage of corporate slangs does not in any way make you a good writer and your book a good thriller ......
To wrap up ---- Please do not go for this book. Sheer waste of time.
No comments:
Post a Comment